PRESS STATEMENT
Monday, 22 October 2007
The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) urges the Election Commission secretary Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor to lodge police reports against the assistant registration officers whom he claimed have illegally transferred voters to other areas before 16 July, 2002. If found guilty under the Election Offences Act 1954, those officers shall be liable for imprisonment up to two years, fine up to RM 5,000 or both.

The public must view seriously the involuntary transfer of voters as it jeopardizes the electoral process in two ways. Firstly, it disenfranchises the transferred voters from deciding on their constituency representative. Secondly, if the transferred voters do not turn up to vote in their ‘new’ constituencies, some impersonators may vote on their behalf and at the cost of genuine voters.
Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor must therefore publicise the names of the culprits and provide the police with sufficient evidence to initiate investigations under Sections 3(1)(a) (making false statement by any person) and 4(a) [making false entry by election officers] of the Election Offences Act 1954. Should he fail to do so, he will be sending the wrong message that the EC is either protecting these electoral ‘criminals’ or using them as scapegoats. It may also result in public suspicion of all the 2,000 assistant registration officers nationwide.
BERSIH also requests that Datuk Kamaruzaman explain why involuntary transfers of voters can still take place after the new registration systems have been put in place after 16 July, 2002. If the assistant registration officers cannot be blamed, who are the culprits now?
To restore public confidence, the EC must clean up the electoral roll as BERSIH has been pressing for a year. No citizen should be disenfranchised and no impersonators should be allowed to dilute the power of genuine voters in any constituency. The EC must advise the Government against holding the general election until the probity of the electoral roll is no longer in question.
BERSIH calls upon all voters to check if they are registered to vote in the right constituencies and to inform BERSIH of any instance of involuntary voter transfer.
Enough is enough! The EC must immediately put a stop to these electoral ‘crimes’ and prosecute the ‘criminals’.